CBH Talk | An Unfinished Revolution: Dialogues on Freedom and Democracy with Kellie Carter Jackson

Marking the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, join us to reflect, reckon, and reimagine the ideals at the heart of the American experiment. 

Across three evenings, CBH invites distinguished historians to select short readings as starting points for guided public conversations on the promise, limits, and enduring contradictions of a revolution still unfolding.

For the final program in the series, historian Kellie Carter Jackson has selected A Letter to My Nephew by James Baldwin as the evening’s shared reading and point of departure.

Written on the centennial of emancipation and addressed to Baldwin’s young nephew, the essay is at once a warning, a meditation on race and American identity, and a powerful call to resist despair. Using Baldwin’s text as a springboard, participants will engage in a guided conversation about citizenship, belonging, historical memory, and the unfinished struggle to realize the promises of American democracy.

Audience members are invited not simply to listen, but to actively reflect, question, and contribute to the discussion. The evening will be guided by Ben Tumin, creator of the podcast and Substack Skipped History.

Read A Letter to My Nephew by James Baldwin here.

This program takes place in CBH’s Othmer Reading Room. Space is limited. Earler programs in the series feature historians Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Elizabeth Hinton. 

About "An Unfinished Revolution: Dialogues on Freedom and Democracy" 

As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, this series invites audiences into conversation about the paradox of a nation founded on sweeping democratic ideals that have never been fully realized. Blending historical reflection with participatory dialogue, we'll move from text to conversation to collective exchange, creating space for audiences to grapple together with how the past continues to shape the present and what it might mean to carry forward the unfinished work of democracy.

Participants

Kellie Carter Jackson is the Michael and Denise Kellen ‘68 Associate Professor of Africana Studies and the Chair of the Africana Studies Department Wellesley College. She is the award winning author of We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance. We Refuse was listed as one of the best books of 2024 by eight different publications and organizations. She is also the author of the award winning book, Force & Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence. The Washington Post listed Force and Freedom as one of 13 books to read on African American history. Her essays have been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, CNN, The Nation, and a host of other outlets. She has been featured in numerous documentaries for Netflix, PBS, MSNBC, and AppleTV. She has also been interviewed on Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, MSNBC, Democracy Now, NPR, and countless podcasts. Kellie Carter Jackson loves a good podcast! She co-hosts the podcast, “This Day (A History Show),” with Jody Avirgan and Nicole Hemmer.  She lives outside of Boston with her husband and three children.

Ben Tumin is a Brooklyn-based writer, researcher, and performer whose work bridges historical scholarship with live performance, documentary video, and public humanities. He is creator and performer of The Power Broker Trilogy, an original multimedia live series inspired by Robert Caro's landmark work. The trilogy has completed sold-out runs at NYC's Caveat theater, with Part 3 slated for September 2026.

Tumin also produces Skipped History, a weekly newsletter featuring interviews with historians and journalists whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue. His companion web series—researching overlooked people and events that shape contemporary America—has amassed over one million views across platforms and earned profiles in The New York Times and citations in The Washington Post.

This program is funded in part by the NYU Office of Community Engagement.